3M Co. Chief Financial Officer Monish Patolawala is stepping down to take the same role at another company, further shaking up the industrial product maker’s leadership after a CEO change earlier this year.
Monish Patolawala
Patolawala will remain through the end of the month with Mapelwood-based 3M, which has initiated a succession process to identify a replacement, the company said Wednesday in a statement. The executive will join agriculture supply company Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. as CFO on Aug. 1, according to a separate statement.
The move comes shortly after aerospace veteran Bill Brown took the helm as 3M’s chief executive officer. Patolawala was in the finance role for four years and helped guide the company through the spinoff of its health care business, Solventum Corp., and multiple billion-dollar settlements over the company’s role in contaminated drinking water.
“New external hire CEOs typically like to hand-pick their own CFOs at least three-quarters of the time, so this announcement is consistent with the practice where Bill Brown can select his own finance executive,” Deane Dray, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said in a note. “This ‘brain drain’ of losing high-caliber employees in the running for top management positions is a relatively common outcome.”
Shares in 3M closed up 2% Wednesday, at $101.67. ADM shares rose 1.7% at 64.23.
For ADM, Patolawala’s appointment brings to an end a six-month period of interim leadership in the finance department. Former CFO Vikram Luthar was placed on administrative leave in January and had agreed to resign effective Sept. 30 amid an accounting investigation that sent the company’s shares plunging.
In March, ADM disclosed a $137 million impairment charge related to its animal nutrition business after an internal probe, bringing relief to investors that feared the fallout would be worse. The company is still under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice.
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